Interesting pix - particularly 7.
Only 2 bikes.
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/how-edinburgh-looked-in-the-1950s-1-4448698
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"How Edinburgh looked in the 1950s"
(27 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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Number 15 - the junction between Pleasance and Drummond Street is now closed off. Perhaps convincing people that beer will be saved is the way to get road improvements done?
EDIT: I see a bike in the crowd in #9, where's the other?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Many will look on these photos with some rose-tinted nostalgia.
I prefer to reflect on the choking, all-enveloping permasmog and how everything is universally covered in a thick layer of coal soot.
Posted 6 years ago # -
everything is universally covered in a thick layer of coal soot
None on the lovely Norwegian snow on the Braid Hills ski jump.
Posted 6 years ago # -
17 - my first reaction was "some things have not changed" and then I read the caption!
Posted 6 years ago # -
The buildings would still be covered in soot today if had not been cleaned. Much of the soot may pre date the 1950s. May be they should have keep some streets un-cleaned for historic purposes.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"May be they should have keep some streets un-cleaned for historic purposes."
Abbeyhill colonies, and most tenements in the area* remain uncleaned. The prevailing wind and rain over decades has "cleaned" the south and west facing aspects of many stone built buildings; however the north and east facing aspects retain quite a lot of soot, though this has faded and the effects of water running down stone facings can be seen on many buildings.
So the soot on facades is slowly disappearing. How much of it has been replaced by fine particulate carbon from diesel exhausts in recent decades?
* - Exception being some (not all) Georgian era properties on Montrose Terrace/London Road.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Active travel too - you never see a crowd of employees running on leaving work nowadays. Or were they in a hurry to reach licensed premises?
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Blueth I believe they were to trying to catch the bus or train before it filled to get home. Hundreds (thousands?) of people finishing work at the same time and relying on public transport to get home doesn't really happen now.
Posted 6 years ago # -
My flippancy obviously didn't show, lorlane.
I am, alas, old enough to remember those days and how travel patterns have changed. Notwithstanding that, the bus queues I see in town at "lousing time" would certainly prompt me to run were I working there, rather than out of town as I do, nowadays.
Posted 6 years ago # -
ah... I used to wonder why the workers were always running in these photos before I was reliably informed. And they are often laughing too (because they are at the front?).
Not one of them is overweight though.
Posted 6 years ago # -
If I were a cynic I'd suggest the rubberworks photo contrived to show off the photographer's high speed camera, which while available, wouldn't have been common at the time
Posted 6 years ago # -
George Street scene remarkably similar 60 years on.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@blueth/Lorraine, the pubs did close very early. Men went from work to pub extending opening times to 10pm was designed to encourage them to go home first. I can remember 10pm closing as on a Saturday my dad and his pal would come back from The Corner Bar in time for Sportscene the back of ten. Previously it was maybe nine or even eight.
Bus queues just ain't what they used to be.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I remember 10pm closing because it meant we got home to watch OGWT! And the perplexed German tourist who asked us just after ten where he could go stating "But at home I don't go out until ten thirty". One hopes the tourist has a better experience of Edinburgh these days.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@blueth I know what you mean but imagine it is 1973 you are drinking in THe Artisan (Diggers, Bennetts whatever). THe bell goes, you buy a couple of big whitbreads (or bellhaven screwcaps) at exornbitant carry out from the bar prices. YOu rush home to see The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band comes on singing Next with the mannequins playing the fiddles.
Great night in.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Re #14, "The police had to issue a statement through the press urging drivers to follow the [road markings]" - again some things never change.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cafe Royal actually Gembo, but we just downed a final, final, round rather than do the cairy oot.
Posted 6 years ago # -
An awful lot more cobbles then than there are now. Destroyed by heavier vehicles, I suppose, then covered over with blacktop.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I think tarmac was seen as a "better" more modern job. A lot of the cobbles were lifted and a proper road construction done if I remember correctly.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Good news on old Edinburgh pubs. If I was not being careful after work night out and using work electric bike to get home, I would have gone straight in to the newly re-opened, Waverley. So friendly and welcoming did it look and how strong my feelings are about drinking there in 1987 when the owner was a human being, I thought of extreme age and called Stanley as I thought he looked like Stanley Baxter. Ian was his real name and kindly for a publican. The pubs glory days were the late 1960s folk revival. In 1987 it had not been cleaned properly since 1967. The landlord felt dust was character enhancing. It has now been cleaned and restored. It has not changed, it is. The same nice lamp shades, inviting frontage. Has upstairs that used to be book able. Etc etc. Therefore I am proposing a CCE night out to the Waverley.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"Therefore I am proposing a CCE night out to the Waverley."
Sounds good.
Please investigate upstairs.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I have been investigating on Facebook as it has a page, not much traffic but it has helped me with why I am so fond of the pub. The Waverley pub is a living organism. The wee upstairs lamps are the eyes and the downstairs window the mouth with the bottles and glasses as the teeth.
It also has the wee friendly faces on the outside wall.
Ok it was damp and dusty and a bit of an anti-climax inside, nuts and crisps the only food. But. i Think that has been fixed.with the restoration. And I think they have deliberately just made it like it was.
St Mary's street well closed just now of course but not to bikes.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Slightly related -
https://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/2010/11/the-route-to-nowhere-georgie-rosie/
Posted 6 years ago # -
I have been in for a coffee. £1.20, strong, black filter coffee I am jangling.
It is basically how I would have a boozer. Does do soup, sandwiches and nice looking pies.
Big Ronan is managing the bar, he will happily reserve a few tables (we cannot get exlusive use of nthe upstairs but hey, I can cope)
George Duff the folk musician will be playing sunday pm
Billy Connolly routines playing in the gents (stumblebums played it in 1978, the upstairs bar not the bog)
I am proposing a CCE evening out. I predict some shennigans now to get a date. THe last time we did doodle I went with majority vote, which was night I could not make. I guess if I am the proposer I might get along this time.I can do Fri or Sat in June 2nd or 3rd, 9th or 10th or 23rd or 24th. Say 7pm
Posted 6 years ago # -
New thread please.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Did start new thread but should have googled instead of using search here.
The night out is this Friday at 7pm at the Waverley Bar of St Mary Street, up at the high street junction on left heading north. We have two tables reserved upstairs. There will be live music. There will be no food. Craft beer in bottles only.
Posted 6 years ago #
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